Vod was absolutely ecstatic about the swim with the dolphins - said it was better than watching the whales. This sentence is the understatement of the year, think up a few more wonderful adjectives for this amazing experience swimming in open sea , 600 m deep and surrounded by hundreds of cavorting dolphins.

That evening we moved on down the coast towards Christchurch & spent Friday night camped in the middle of nowhere on the beach in glorious sunshine. It was a bit windy but that didn't matter. Vod went for a bracing walk while Stewart prepared thefresh fish we bought that afternoon on the barbecue & we washed down with some of the wine we'd bought in Marlborough. The beaches in New Zealand are amazing - there is absolutely no rubbish on them whatsoeve. Malc would be at a loss with nothing to put in his plastic bag!!! Nobody seems to have thrown any down & none is washed up from out at sea. Very different from the beaches in Europe. Saturday we arrived in Christchurch - home to 35% of the entire population of the South Island - which means it's got about the same population as Villefranche sur Saone !The campsite was absolutely amazing - just 10 mins from the centre of Christchurch in manicured gardens with absolutely incredible facilities - more like a luxury hotel than a campsite.

As planned for months we met up with Andy Fu, a former domnick hunter colleague who used to be the distributor for Taiwan. He's now retired & settled in Christchurch and concentrating on his opera singing - you wouldn't believe that a skinny little chinese guy could sing like Pavarotti - but he can. Saturday night he sang in the Christchurch City choir as part of a huge outdoor free classical music concert in Hagley Park, the sort of Christchurch equivalent of Hyde Park in London. Along with 70 000 other people we sat on the lawns of the park with a picnic & wine listening to the concert. Amazingly the woman sitting right next to us turned out to be French - "Présidente de l'Alliance Francaise" in Christchurch ! !

Sunday Andy took us to visit the sights of Christchurch including lunch on the coast at Lyttleton - but we were all suffering from the heat. Saturday night it had been like an english summer evening, not terribly warm & it rained a bit but Sunday morning we woke to a blazing hot sun & wind which was as hot as a blast furnace. So far it's never been hotter than 27C but Sunday shot up to 38C and with the wind it was absolutely suffocating. Apparently when the wind blows from the North West it arrives after crossing the baking hot interior of Australia - hence the temperature change. Then during the night the wind changed to the South, the temperature dropped like a stone( South wind comes from Antarctic) and today has been about 12C with drizzling rain.

We finished our time in Christchurch with a chinese meal with Andy & his wife & some other Taiwanese friends of his - our mandarin is coming along very nicely ! It was a typical large chinese restaurant and absolutely packed but the only two non chinese in there were us two ! - a very ethnic evening !